The Spirit World Return
by T.abby101
Summary: It's been 8 years since the war broke out. Chihiro's father died at war, the rest of her family back in Japan are all gone. Only her and her mother are there now. But when tragedy strikes again, Chihiro finds herself back in the spirit relm.
1. Dear Diary

"Dear Diary,

Day 2926

The war has taken a toll on my family. 8 years since I've been to the spirit world and now my real world is falling apart. When The War started my dad was laid off from his job and forced to join the military. My mom now serves as a nurse for the medical unit in the military. My dad died after the first year of the war. He got taken and held captive for 6 months, they starved him and then slowly tortured him to insanity before pulling the trigger on him. My mom was on the medical team the day that my father came back and she was the third person to see him. My mom was never the same after she saw my life was father laying out on a stretcher withered to bones and covered in blood and bruises.

I'm in a private school training between self-defense and Medical Care. I want to be full of Courage like my father I'm full of wisdom like my mother. I'm trying so hard to be a daughter they would be proud of. How can I make my mother happy and proud of me, when she's never here to see me succeed. I don't know who could be proud of me. All my family back home are dead. They were all seen as traitors to the attackers. I'm all that's left of my bloodline besides my mom. I have no friends, I'm afraid to let anyone in anymore. My best friend that I trained with for three years was taken out the day after her birthday. She was only 17. She's been gone for over a year now. When she was killed I locked myself away from everybody and swore not to make any friends. I don't want to be hurt anymore and I can't take having to watch another person that I love and care about be taken away from me.

It seems so long ago when I visited the spirit world. Sometimes I think about the friendships I made there just to get me through the day. Mother is no good to talk to, it's like talking to a brick wall. She no longer shows any emotion, but of course I don't blame her. Her and dad were best friends, childhood sweethearts as I remember. Sometimes when I'm feeling extra alone, I'll sit and think about Haku. His love and kindness and gentleness it's something that I miss right about now.

I don't know if I'm making mother proud, but I know Granny would be proud. Zaniba was a sweet soul, I miss her, but most of all I miss how she was so understanding. I need that right now.

I miss all my friends. I miss Zaniba, Lynn, no face, the boiler man, my baby friend, and the crow, but most of all, I miss Haku.

If love was ever a real thing, I came to know it in the spirit world. It may have been difficult when I was there, but it's the most alive I've ever felt. I miss it. I missed the weird version of acceptance that I received their. I even miss the soot sprites that always made sure my shoes were clean and my clothes were folded.

It's been so long sometimes I wonder if it was all a dream. I still have my hair bow, I wear it as a bracelet now. That is one of the main things that help me know that it wasn't, the other thing is the undeniable love that I have for Haku. I so desperately wish that I could go back. Would he still be there waiting for me? Or would he have moved on to bigger and better things. Would he have went home where he can be free? What would be the point of going back? The only reason I would go back would be for him and all my friends there.

I know I talked about the spirit world a lot lately, but it is one of the few good memories that I have anymore. I'm sorry diary, I know that you have to hear my issues everyday. It helps me stay sane. Good night for now. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow."

Chihiro closed her diary and put it in her nightstand along with her pin and close the drawer. She went outside to sit and watch the Moon glisten over the Open Sea. This was a nightly ritual she used to help calm her mind from the days turmoil. Their Little Shack of a house seem to creak with the Wind. There was smoke damage on the shutters from the fires of the bombs that came when the war first started. She had to consider the her and her mom we're lucky to even still have a house.

She watched as the waves crashed against the rocks and reminisced on watching the water in the Moonlight with Lynn back when she was at the bathhouse. This night in particular she was missing the spirit world more than normal. After sitting on the porch for what seemed like hours thinking silently to herself, she got up picked her candle up off the floor, and made her way back inside closing the door behind her.

She crept past her mom who was sleeping on the couch and made her way back to her bed on the floor in her bedroom. She blew out her candle and tucked herself in and listened to the waves crashing outside to slowly soothe herself to sleep. She dreamed about the spirit world again.

She dreamed of seeing Haku in his Dragon form. She dreamed that they were flying through the sky and she was talking to him, telling him about how she wanted to stay in the spirit world with him. Its a dream that she has had many times before. The dreams about Haku always entranced her enough to sleep through the night and forget about all the troubles of her life.


	2. Chapter 2 The bombs

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED. This chapter contains content that might not be suitable for younger audiences. This chapter contains content that could trigger veterans and those effected by wars. Again, Viewer discretion is advised!

Chihiro woke up early the next morning. She was awake before her mother so she decided to take a bath. She carried 7 large buckets of water from the sea and put them in their cast iron tub and then lit a fire in the heating element. She closed the door to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror well she undressed. Her hair was now down to the middle of her back. Her face was now matured being contoured perfectly. She had to find cheekbones, average breasts, and she was about five and a half foot tall, she was skinny and tone, I have a scar through her eyebrow now from an accident while training.

She removed the sparkling hairtie from her wrist and placed it on the counter before making her way to the tub. She put one foot in to make sure the temperature was just right. She made her way in and slowly laid back letting her body relax into the hot water. Her long brown hair floated in the water. The steam in the bathroom fogged up the mirror as she washed her hair and body. The only thing on her mind in that moment was peace. She closed her eyes and watched the shadows from the lit candles dance around on her eyelids.

Eventually the thoughts of Haku came in to her mind. She brushed water against her leg and remembered how he pulled her from the water when she was small. She remembered her little pink shoe and how she was terrified to drown but then the water picked her up and carried her back to shore. It was Haku that saved her life, and to him she was forever grateful. She couldn't help but Wonder what he looks like now. Was his short dark green hair now long? Did his eyes still pierce with the darkest green? She then began to blush as she thought about what he looked like now. How tall was he? What did his body look like now? Is his dragon form still the same?

She left she shook the thoughts from her head. She pulled the plug on the tub allowing the water to leave through the drain in the floor. She pulled herself from the water and patted herself dry. She put on her bra and white and pink shirt. She then put her white socks and and underwear on. She managed to wiggle her way into her black pants and then put her hair into a towel burrito. (What else do you call it! :P) She then placed her sparkeling hair tie back on her wrist and made her way into the hall.

Her mom was still sleeping. She still had about 25 minutes before she had to wake up for her shift at the medical center. She made her way into the kitchen and lit a fire in the make shift oven. They didn't have power anymore because they no longer had enough men to run the power plants since they were all fighting in the war. She placed to pieces of salmon on the open flame and then reheated the steamed rice her mom made the night before.

While the fish and rice were cooking, she went out to the back yard and collected the eggs from her chickens. She put them on the counter in the kitchen and then put 2 in a pot to boil them. She went to the porch and broke off 2 large pieces of nori and brought them inside along with 2 carrots from their garden. Her mom seemed to smell the food because woke up quickly.

Once all the food was done she prepared them both a plate. She gave her mom the larger piece of salmon on top of a bed of rice laid on the nori. She then sliced up one of the eggs and a carrot and put them to the side of the plate. She poured her mom a cup of water they had distilled from the sea. By the time she made her way to her mom, she was already in her nurses uniform and ready for work.

"Good morning mom. I made you some breakfast. I know you need a lot of protein for the day." She looked at her mother longingly but met a blank stare. " Thank you Chihiro." Her mom took the plate and scarfed the food down. In that moment Chihiro thought about how her mom resembled her 'old' form as a large pig. She let out a small laugh and a smile at her mom.

"I have to be along now", her mom grabbed her bag off of her couch and started out the door. Chihiro felt led to follow after her mom. She pulled her mom into a hug from behind. Her mom went silent. "Mom, look I know I haven't been the best daughter, and I know dad is gone, but you have bo idea how much I wish it had been me instead of him. I know you're not the proudest mother, but I want you to know that I love you."

Chihiro looked up at her mother's face as a single tear left her eye, "I will be late if you don't stop this, we will continue this when I get home." She looked at Chihiro as she pulled away and forced an awkward smile on her face before walking out onto the porch, down the dirt path towards the main road.

Chihiro had just made it to her bedroom when she heard the all to familiar sound of enemy war planes flying over-head. Her heart dropped. She scrambled to make it back to the front door when she heard the bomb dropping. She managed to make it into the living room before the bomb hit. She was flung against the kitchen counter as the windows blew out of the house from the force of the bomb. She tried to make it to her feet when another bomb hit on the opposite side of the house.

She was flung back to the floor as the whole house shook and filled with dirt and smoke. Her ears were ringing, but she could make out the distant screams from the other villagers. The planes seemed to be getting further away , but the bombs hitting the ground were still shaking the house. She crawled over to the wall and pulled herself up.

Everything was dark and ashy. She was disoriented and in pain. She looked down and seem that she had two shards of glass sticking into her body. One was stuck through her thigh and the other was lodged in her stomach. She screamed in pain as the pulled them out. She slowly pulled herself to the door and quickly put on her training jacket and belt she left beside the door and tried to hurry out of the house.

Her leg and core were both bleeding, she was in pain, but she was determined to find her mother. She tripped and stumbled over debre while she could still hear screams and bombs going off. She struggled to see in-between the flashes of lights. She searched and searched until one deafening flash showed Chihiro what she feared the most. Her mother was laying on the ground, blood coming from her head,mouth, and nose. She had a piece of fencing stuck pinning her to the ground.

She collapsed next to her mom and began to cry and her mother was struggling to breathe. Her mom looked at her and touched her hand gently. "Chihiro. My sweet sweet little girl." Chihiro looked at her mom as she couched up blood. Tears were rolling out of both their eyes, "Don't be sad my sweet girl. I'm sorry I've been so cold to you, but I thought I was showing you how to be strong in hard times, the truth is", she coughed up more blood this time as she winced in pain, "the truth is, I am the weak one. You are so strong. I am more than proud of the woman you have become. You take that after your father. I love you my child. You will be okay. You're stronger then I am just always remember", Chihiro watched as her mother began to choke on her own blood, "just remember...*cough*... That your mother ...* cough cough* will always love you."

She looked Chihiro in the eyes as her chest fell for the last time. Chihiro was freaking out and tried to pull the bit of fencing off of her mom but she simply wasn't strong enough, "D8MNIT MOM DON'T LEAVE ME! I STILL NEED YOU. PLEASE", tears were coming faster than she could breathe. She tried to shake her mom awake but nothing was bringing her back. She collapsed next to her mom and cried for a while.

That was it. She was completely broken. She heard the planes in the distance heading back in their direction, still dropping bombs. She quickly gave her mom a kiss on the forehead and closed her eyes. She took the locket and dog tags from her neck and placed it on hers. The grabbed her moms medical bag and gave her one last kiss before she got up and tried to run from the planes that were closing in on her.

The more she ran, the more her leg bled and sent sharp pains into her stomach. She managed to run almost off their property before the planes had caught up with her. Another bomb hit the ground about 100 feet from her and it sent her flying down a bank. She hit her head on a rock on the way down which almost knocked her out.

She was in so much pain. Everything was moving in slow motion. All she could hear were bombs blowing up but it was muffled by the ringing in her ears. She stumbled to her feet, trying to make it away from the attack. After walking past all the tall trees she came to an opening.

This place felt oddly familiar. She walked to the right of the clearing where it was much clearer and the sounds of the bombs grew faint. Chihiro knew she had been here before. Her vision grew a little darker as the pain in her body began to take over all her senses. She stumbled on a small fat looking stone spirit sculpture. She Definately knew this place.

She took in a deep breath, despite the pain, and slowly looked up. There it was the big red building which allowed her to pass through the spirit gate. Her heart was pounding. She placed her hand on the wall and embraced it. She began crying as all the emotions hit her at once. The thought of leaving everything behind, her dad being gone, her mom dying before her eyes, and the oppertunity to go home to the spirit world.

The pain grew as Chihiro made the decision to leave this world for good. She had nothing left here. Anything there would be better than staying there. She pulled a shakable flashlight from her mother's bag, and began to walk down the long, dark hallway. After a few seconds, she could make out a light at the end of the tunnel. She could feel her heart beating in her head as her breathes grew more and more shallow, the pain was becoming unbearable. The further she walked, her heart grew more nervous. She was nervous to see the end of the tunnel, but also scared that she might die before she made it there.

She finally made it to the end and walked out into the peaceful light. She bo longer heard any bombs, and finally felt a little content as she collapsed to her knees. Her vision started to blur as she tried to look around. It was just the way she remembered except there was someone walking towards her. They finally came into view, she knew this one all to well. His short dark green hair was now long and flowing down, the top half pulled into a bun. He wore long flowing white and blue robes, was over 6 foot tall, and had a peaceful light about him.

Chihiro's heart wa as bearing so hard, clouding her vision, as the pain grew in her body. It was Haku. She finally felt safe. A sharp pain made her collapse onto the floor. The man ran to her in time to stop her head from hitting the stone ground. She looked up into his piercing, dark green eyes. She let out a soft smile, "Haku...", as his name left her mouth, she lost consciousness and her head dropped down into his lap.


	3. Chapter 3 Haku's Side

Chihiro was nodding in and out of consciousness. She could tell that she was being carried buy a solid built man. She looked up to see flashes of long dark green hair and white and blue robes. She could tell that he was running, but she couldn't hold herself to stay awake. All she could do was to murmur his name over and over in a light voice. She felt like she was slipping away. She tried to hold on as long as she could, but she had no power over the darkness that was taking over her eyes. The last thing she remembers seeing haku's piercing green eyes glancing into hers right before she slipped into a deep slumber.

"Chihiro, all this time has passed. You grew into a beautiful woman. I remember how scared you were when I first met you. A young 11 year old girl just trying to find her parents. I know what it's like to feel so scared and alone. Do you know how I came here in the first place? My bloodline is filled with anchient water dragons. But those who are born into it have exceptions. The water dragons spirit only touches every-other generation.

This means that my father was a human, just like you. When he met my mother they immediately had me. I remember them taking me to the water often so I could swim. I always felt that the water could calm and heal me. I was part of a loving and happy family. But when I was almost 9, my mother became pregnant again. My parents were joyful that they could bare another child. In a normal world, there is to be only one dragon to come from it's parent.

Women water dragons are recessive which means, they typically won't give birth to their water dragon child until they concieve for a second time. The thing is, my mother was an orphan. She never knew that she came from a long line of water dragons until she became pregnant for a second time. I remember going to lay with my mother almost every night to lay my head on her stomach and listen to by baby brother or sister.

The last day I remember seeing my mother was the day I told her that I felt a snake in her tummy. She immediately knew something was wrong. Dad and her left me at the house for days by myself while they took her to the doctor.

I didn't hear from them for 5 days. One day I was out working in the garden, pulling up the carrots to make some supper. I looked past the fence to our little old house and seen my father walking back by himself. He had a disturbed look on his face and was almost running. My heart filled with joy because I thought that maybe my sibling had arrived. I threw down my gloves and ran to my father. When I approached him the joy that filled my heart and mediately turned into fear.

I remember begging him to tell me what was wrong. All he kept saying was that we had to leave immediately. We didn't have any time to grab anything he simply grabbed me by the wrist and shuffled me after him.

We managed to make it almost 4 hours away from our house when finally my father stopped down by a small River. The kohaku river to be exact. I remember the fear and Brokenness and My Father's Eyes whenever he turned to me. He told me that he loved me and that he was doing this to protect me. You see Chihiro in our world it is the biggest crime of treason to have two different water dragon families breed and intertwine with one another. The punishment for such crimes is death to the bloodline. You see this world doesn't necessarily see eye-to-eye when it comes to these type of things. My mother never knew that she was from a water dragon bloodline nor did my father.

My mother died giving birth to what would have been my baby brother. He came out of her in his water dragon form. But the doctor, knowing the punishment for what they had done, alerted the authorities and they came and took my baby brother and killed him. My father begged them to let him go because he never knew that my mother was a water dragon bloodline descendant.

He told them that I was dead. They told him the I stayed away from the water too long a my spirit dried up so I was a human. He then told them that once I was human I ran out into the road playing and got hit by a car. Luckily they believed him long enough to come to me.

My father placed a locket around my neck, and told me that when I need to figure out where to go or who to look for to open the locket and I will find my way. The next thing I know, my father pushed me into the water, and then performed a spell holding me captive to the kohaku river. I could not be seen by any people involved with the spirit world as long as I stayed in the river.

As my father turned away to run up the hill, he looked back at me while tears were fleeing his eyes. He shouted that he loved me before I watched has he left. Little did I know that that was the last time I would see either of my parents. I was only 9 years old when I lost my parents Chihiro, so I know what it's like.

I stayed in the kohaku river for three years I lived a sheltered life, I never left the river. You are not the first person I saved from the river. But you are the first person that I wanted to save. I don't know what it is about you and your little pink shoe, but for some reason my heart was pulling towards you. Maybe the gods new that I needed you and you needed me.

I waited for you to come back to my River. I often swim by the spot that you and your family set up for the day waiting for you to come back to the water. A year after you fell into my River, they begin to fill it with dirt and cement and broken trees and logs. Eventually I was forced to leave my home, the only reason why I stayed so long, was hoping that the girl with a little pink shoe would come back for me.

When I left the river I searched many places to find somewhere where I belong. I started studying Magic from vendors anybody that had anything to teach. I traveled all of Japan and search for a place that would accept me. When I stumbled upon the bath house I was almost 12. I snuck into the Boiler Room to find some more warmth for the night. That's where I met komaji. He took me in for a few days so I could rest and regain my strength. He gave me a few bath tokens so I could soak to regain some strength. After I was better, he sent me to Yubaba. I told her about how I practice Magic and that I was a water dragon and she decided to take me on as her Apprentice. She was supposed to teach me magic and how to control my dragon, but instead she decided to use me as her own personal punching bag.

I was at the bath house for a year before you showed up. By then I had learned about Yubaba's

True intentions. I wanted to break free from her but I signed a ten-year contract. I'm bound to the bathhouse for 10 years the day I signed that contract. You brought light into my world when you came here Chihiro. Because of you I finally remembered my name. You gave me the means I needed to leave this place, but if I left this place before my contract was up for longer than 2 days, I would have died. That's the way she made the contracts, she could not make the contracts to herself, so she made them to the bathhouse taking the names of her victims and confining them to the bathhouse.

I'm almost 21 now, which means I still have a year here, I want you to know Chihiro I tried to leave many times to look for you. But when you're under a contract you cannot leave the spirit world. I tried many times to break the contract and ended up in critical condition. I tried to come to you and your dreams but it never successfully happened. I love you Chihiro. You mean everything to me. I'm sorry that I couldn't come to you sooner, but you're here now and you're by my side again.

As long as you stay by my side you will never have to worry about anything ever again. I will take care of you the way I did when we were small. You've grown into a beautiful woman, but to me you were always beautiful inside and out. So please don't sleep too long, heal quickly. You will be okay I know you will be. I will be with you until you see fit to leave. So enjoy your rest for now, know that I am by your side watching over you."

This whole time Chihiro was starting to wake up, but she kept still and quite. She could tell she was on thr ground and her head was in his lap. While Haku spoke with his smooth voice, he gently stoked Chihiro's cheek. She was at peace. She finally understood why he never came to her. She didn't want to wake up, she just wanted to listen to him talk. She missed his voice.

When Haku was done talking, he slowly and carefully stood up and placed Chihiro's head down gently on a pillow. He knelt down and softly pressed his lips to her forehead, making her blush slightly. Haku noticed, smiled, and dare not say another word. He knew she heard him. He made his way across the room and closed the door behind him. She listened to the concersation happening on the other side of the door.

" Thank you Boh, Lin, and Zeniba. Her wounds are healing quickly. Even though it's been 6 days, I believe she will be waking up soon. I will be back tonight with more dressings for her side and leg. If she wakes up while I'm away, send the messenger out to alert me." With those words, Chihiro found herself slipping back into a sleep.


End file.
